ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The St. Olaf College volleyball team completed a 3-1 showing at the WashU Bear Invitational with a four-set loss to Bowdoin College and a five-set victory over No. 14-ranked Washington University in St. Louis on Saturday at WashU Field House.
After falling to Bowdoin (2-0) by a 20-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-21 margin to start the day, St. Olaf (3-1) outlasted No. 14 WashU (1-1) in a 24-26, 25-21, 25-20, 24-26, 16-14 marathon that included three sets that went to extra points. The victory was just the second in 11 all-time meetings with the Bears for the Oles and the first since 2000. It was also St. Olaf's seventh top-15 win since the start of the 2019 season.
St. Olaf, which received votes in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Preseason Poll, will venture to Nebraska next weekend for three matches at the P-Wolf Invite at Nebraska Wesleyan University. The Oles will face Gordon College at 3 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11 to open the tournament.
Bowdoin 3, St. Olaf 1 | Box Score
After St. Olaf held Bowdoin to a .100 attack percentage in the opening set, the Polar Bears hit .302 over the final three sets to rally for the four-set victory. The match was the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
Junior
Mehsa Krause, who had 11 double-doubles last season, compiled her first double-double of the season with a team-high 11 kills, 12 digs, and three aces while hitting .357. Senior
Evelyn Kreft, senior
Lilah Van Scoyoc, and sophomore
Zahara Johnson tallied eight kills apiece, with Johnson's eight kills being the highest total of her collegiate career.
Sophomore
Kailani Schroeder handed out 19 assists, while junior
Sophie Saxton added 17. Senior
Michaela Dooley led the Oles defensively with a match-high 19 digs and two aces.
Krause, Kreft, and senior
Maren Miller had three kills apiece in set one to help St. Olaf take the opener. After three early ties, the Oles took control with a 5-0 run to go up 10-5 and held off three late runs by the Polar Bears to seal the set on a Bowdoin service error.
Bowdoin held St. Olaf to just eight kills in the second set, with Johnson accounting for half of the Oles' kills. Skye LaMendola provided eight kills on 10 swings in the set for the Polar Bears, who broke a 20-20 tie by winning five of the final seven points.
LaMendola again led the way for Bowdoin in the third, racking up seven kills on nine errorless swings to give the Polar Bears a two-sets-to-one lead by winning a set that included 10 ties and nine lead changes. St. Olaf was ahead 19-18 late on before Bowdoin won four of the next five points on its way to taking the third.
St. Olaf hit .346 and had just three attack errors in the fourth set, but Bowdoin was even better offensively, hitting .438 with three errors of its own to complete the four-set victory. The Polar Bears started the set on an 8-3 run and led by as many as seven before holding off the Oles late. St. Olaf closed to within two at 23-21 on back-to-back kills by Kreft, but Bowdoin got a kill and an ace on the next two points to finish off the win.
St. Olaf 3, No. 14 WashU 2 | Box Score
St. Olaf fought back from dropping the first and fourth sets in extra points to claim the five-set victory by winning a deciding set that included seven ties. In total, the match featured 49 ties and 16 lead changes over the five sets.
Kreft led four Oles in double figures in kills with 17, while Van Scoyoc had 13, Krause added 11, and Miller had 10 on 14 errorless swings. Saxton totaled 28 assists, four digs, three aces, and one kill, while Schroeder narrowly missed a double-double with 23 assists, nine digs, three aces, and one kill. Dooley bested her then-career-high 19 digs earlier in the day with 23 more.
The first set included 15 ties and eight lead changes, but WashU saved a set point down 24-23 to start a 3-0 close to the set to take the opener. The Bears held a 22-19 lead late in the set before the Oles went on a 4-1 run that included back-to-back aces by Schroeder, but a service error kept WashU in the set on St. Olaf's set point.
Krause and Kreft combined for 11 of St. Olaf's 14 kills in the second set, as the Oles broke a 20-20 tie by winning five of the last six points. With St. Olaf up 22-21, Kreft delivered back-to-back kills to bring up set point before a WashU error evened the match at a set apiece.
Miller had kills on all five of her swings in set three, as St. Olaf hit .310 as a team to take a two-sets-to-one lead. The Oles cooled off to a .130 attack percentage in the fourth but were still able to get the set to extra points before the Bears stayed alive with a 26-24 set win. St. Olaf saved two set points to tie the fourth at 24-24, but a service error and an attack error sent the match to a deciding set.
The Oles fell behind 4-1 to start the fifth but responded with a 6-1 run to take a 7-5 lead. Later, the teams were tied at 11-11, 12-12, 13-13, and 14-14, with WashU getting a block to save a match point and level it at 14-14, only for St. Olaf to get a kill and a block to complete the win.
